💬Weekly Discussion: Your body game-changers
Time to share with the class.
Body Typers! Good morning. It’s time for another ✨Weekly Discussion!✨ Here was the first one, from earlier in Sept. (OK, I missed some weeks, I’ll get it together, let’s not talk about it), and I’m so grateful for your comments. These posts are a place for you to talk to each other — and me, I’ll respond to everything — about topics better suited to chit-chat than a full essay post. This is your space.
By the way, ICYMI: My most recent post, on the problems with contemporary Pilates culture:
The long con of Pilates culture
Body Type brings you insights about body image and body culture from me, Mikala Jamison, an independent writer who’s been through big body changes and worked in the fitness industry.
This week’s discussion:
What is the number-one thing that’s changed the game for you, body-wise?
In other words: What is the top thing, if you had to choose, that made things better for you in the realm of exercise/eating/sleep/self-image/body composition/strength/sex/wearing clothes/anything re: your body? What’s the one thing you want to shout from the rooftops about/encourage people to consider because it’s been that damn helpful for you? Tell us!
Important: Of course, what works for one person might not work for all. None of this is meant to be taken as strict — and certainly not medical — advice. Have your grains of salt ready, just in case. This is just a forum for you to consider what’s had real staying power in terms of helping you feel better in and about your body, so that other people might consider similar things if it works for their lifestyle and values.
Mine? Eating more protein. Once I started incorporating it into almost all my meals (along with fat and carbs), so much changed. I felt satisfied from eating. I didn’t get hangry and insane 90 minutes after meals. My stomach hurt less (probably because eating more protein from real food sources meant I was eating less crap and diet-y frankenfoods). I obviously saw strength returns in the gym. I’m not saying I started chugging down five protein shakes and erythritol-loaded “protein snacks” a day; I’m saying I started looking at what I ate and thinking about how eggs, fish, beans, lean meats, and higher-protein grains and veggies fit into the picture. That truly changed everything for me.
OK, your turn!
Strength training cured basically everything that was wrong with me. It’s done wonders for my body functionally and aesthetically, but the more intangible benefits have been incredible. Before I got into lifting, I kind of thought of my body as a shopping cart filled with cans of anxiety. Its purpose was to shuffle from place to place what would otherwise be an impractical number of cans. I stumbled into lifting by accident, having spent my entire life trying my best to not even acknowledge my body (except for purposes of berating it for its innumerable aesthetic failures), let alone *do* anything with it. I loved lifting from the outset and couldn’t wait to do more of it. It works like magic to quiet my silly little brain. I don’t have a single human thought the whole time I’m in the gym. I’m just a little weightlifting machine in there; time flies, and afterwards, even if it wasn’t a particularly good day, I always feel better than if I hadn’t done it. I’ve found that lifting consistently makes it difficult to be anything other than calm and content. It makes me feel primal, creaturely, purposeful: when I’m hungry, I eat the things that allow me to do the things I like to do; I use my body to do things that bring me peace and joy and a sense of accomplishment; I put the well-used, happily tired little body to bed.
I have never had more inner silence. I have never had more respect and appreciation for the miraculous, responsive, forgiving creation that is my body. My body both *is* me, and is something that relies on me to take care of it, and I do everything I can to treat it with the reverence it deserves and to keep it in good working order for as long as possible. I have never had more self-confidence, and it’s not because I’m hotter (although I am); it’s because I do hard shit all the time. It’s because I keep my promises to myself. It’s because I show the fuck up rain or shine and do my best. It’s because I have cultivated both discipline and genuine self-compassion (which is distinct from self-indulgence). It’s because I have made a fool of myself and eaten shit and failed in front of other people repeatedly and admitted when I didn’t know how to do things, and yet I was undeterred, and the only thing that happened was that eventually I got better. I used to feel emotionally dysregulated all the time, and since I started lifting I feel so much more even-keeled and legible to myself and in control of my emotional state. It’s as though the meditative submission to the physical process of lifting let my brain relax for the first time in 30 years and there was finally room enough in there to feng shui the place. I genuinely, unreservedly *like myself*, something I never would have thought possible. I needed to climb out of my constant rumination and learn to truly inhabit my body, and it was both the never-ending learning process and the actual experience of habitation, with all its glorious and challenging sensory reality, that brought that about. I feel like an entirely different person than I was five years ago, and it’s not just because I used to have a Hank Hill ass and now I have such an incredible wagon that random men on the street will ask me how much I squat. The real prize was the friends (myself) I made along the way.
Also, less of a total overhaul in every domain of personhood, but I got an Oura ring to track my sleep. Being able to experiment with sleep hygiene practices and having data to back it up has allowed me to nail down a good routine. Sunlight first thing in the morning, cool shower at least an hour before bed, no late meals or workouts, dim lights in the evening, eye mask + earplugs + cold bedroom. (I’ve never been big on alcohol but on the rare occasions I’ve had some, I now know exactly how atrocious it makes my sleep, so it had better be totally worth it.) I have been a trash sleeper from toddlerhood on, and now I’m a restful 8 hours typa bitch. 😎
Resting. I always thought rest was just lying about doing nothing but I was wrong. There's a lot more more to it than that. There are different kinds of rest (physical, social, mental etc), and it takes skill to be able to do it sustainably. I'm definetly not an expert, but decoupling rest from laziness is one of the best things I've ever done for myself.